i spent most of the day on saturday with luke in old town san diego. we had a blast exploring together. warning: picture heavy post coming up.

^^^ right when we got there we checked out a free museum (aka my favorite kind) inside an old house. it was pretty empty except for us and some creeptastic mannequins so we had the place to ourselves.

^^^ the famous wells fargo wagon and a working telegraph. i’m just going to stick with texting. telegraph ain’t my thang.

^^^ what a goof. love him.

^^^ genuine joy on this boys face when he got to pan for an assortment of rocks and minerals and such.

^^^ “lunch” megan style. ice cream.

^^^ the mormon battalion centre which was recently updated and is now all fun and trendy. it was so fun to hear about these men who not only had an amazing spiritual experience, but who also brought brick making to san diego and who built the wagon trail that later became a major railroad. history! cool right?

momma, luke, one of his friends, and i made the long(ish) journey out to LA today to watch the taping of a disney channel show. because we’re celebrities? i like to think so. (but actually because my mom just does cool mom things like this all the time. go denise go!)

we got to the studio a bit early so we wandered nearby neighborhoods as entertainment. how could walking down a street of houses be entertaining you ask? see above picture. this is somebody’s actual house. and i love them. the picture really doesn’t do it justice.

^^^ me, being genuinely excited to stand in front of this gem of establishment. and also secretly hoping the owners come outside? and present me with a giant bronze dinosaur as a gift? i’m feeling that my apartment in provo would be greatly improved with this lawn decor. you feeling me?

this ^^^ is not actually the set that we were on. sadly i was sworn to secrecy and cannot share any pictures or very much information about the show at all. why did i make an entire blog post about this then? mostly to have an excuse to post about the dinosaur house. but what i can tell you about the show was that there were a few pre-teen celebrities, and a lot of pre-teen audience members. i was with my peeps.

it was actually really interesting to see how all the “behind-the-scenes” stuff works on TV. it’s all smoke and mirrors people. smoke and mirrors. fake laughing, fake talking, fake listening. we did it all. i feel like a real hollywood actress now. next time you see me i may be wearing a fur coat and giant sunglasses. part of my new diva celebrity image. so anyways, if you watch disney channel religiously in january you might just see megan baker fake laughing in the background of your television. lucky you.

^^^ this was one of about 12 different attempts to get this picture. and even then it’s a bit of a struggle.

in celebration of his royal highness george prince of cambridge (insert fangirl squeal), momma, sister and i drove for 40 minutes to get cupcakes at sprinkles. completely reasonable right? but let me tell you, it was completely and totally worth it. cupcakes and royal baby-ness. what more could a girl want?

^^^ love this girl and so glad to have her home from peru. such a babe.

i’ve heard nothing but good things about sprinkles cupcakes, but this was my first time experiencing them for myself. i tried a total of not one, not two, but three cupcakes. an excellent example of my lack of self control when it comes to sweet treats. i loved all of them, especially the salted caramel. try the salted caramel. really. but a word of advice, if you pull a megan and get three cupcakes, do not eat them all at once. you will regret it.

while i sat on my couch gorging myself on cupcakes, the royal baby could very well have been enjoying some milk in kensington palace. is anybody else giddy to the point of ridiculousness about this little boy? and the thought of will and kate as parents? it’s way too much fun. now all i need is for kate to start a blog about parenting the future king. you know you’d read it. i’ll admit my obsession with the royal family is reaching an unhealthy level. the other day i referred to queen elizabeth as “our queen.” at which point the friend i was out to dinner with looked at me like i was from a different planet. just further signs that i’m a brit at heart.

welcome to the world baby george. if i have any say in it i’ll be the royal nanny soon and we can hang out every day. deal?

so i’ve been pretty absent on the blog lately…who knew trying to see everything in london would take up so much time right? and since i haven’t posted in forever i’m going to try to post about the big things i’ve done in no particular order. i figured since i’ve seen quite a few castles and palaces while i’ve been here i’ll start with a post about those.

|| dover ||

the famous white cliffs of dover + dover castle. ^^^ so insanely beautiful, despite the fact that it was ridiculously foggy/rainy that day. but hey, cold and cloudy is kind of my thing so i was loving it. this castle is ancient. there is a roman lighthouse (that looks more like a pile of stones than a lighthouse, but is still pretty cool) and secret WWII wartime tunnels. it was way interesting to learn about it.

i’m not going to lie though, playing in the medieval kitchen was slightly more fun than the history bit. there may have been a short video created in this area. “medieval cooking with megan” is sure to be a hit on the food channel, i’m sure of it. there were a lot of “interactive” parts of the castle where i could pretend that i was medieval royalty. my kind of life, i’m telling you.

disclaimer: i straightened my hair before this day trip. i walked out of the coach when we got there and this ^^^ happened. i told you it was wet that day. but aside from my crazy hair, visiting dover was unreal. it was our first trip out of the city so seeing the countryside and sprawling castle was a massive difference to the tightly packed buildings in london. it felt like a big family vacation…exploring the massive castle, taking lots of pictures, going to the “beach” (essentially a lot of pebbles next to the ocean. definitely beautiful, but didn’t feel much like a beach), and eating our packed lunches. a great introduction to the rest of our day trips.

|| hever ||

hever castle is one of my favorite places that i’ve seen since i’ve been here. kind of surprising considering i’d never heard of it before this trip. compared to other castles it’s small-ish (did i really just form that sentence? england is spoiling me), but i think that’s part of the reason i liked it. it felt manageable, like you could see the whole thing and really look at it rather than sprinting from room to room. it was anne boleyn’s (one of henry the vii’s many wives) childhood home. so we got to see where she slept as a child and all those sorts of things. there was also a hilarious(ly creepy) display of wax figures of all 6 of henry vii’s wives. the guy got around.

the grounds of hever castle were gorgeous, and we only saw a small portion of them. people wouldn’t mind flying to england so i could have my wedding reception here, right? guess i better marry someone who can afford to fly me and my closest friends across the pond. but really, i definitely wouldn’t mind having this as a backyard.

|| kensington ||

when i was in london last year with the momma we went to kensington palace, but how could i resist going again when it’s literally across the street from the center. how cute are these will and kate pillows we found inside? ^^^ i want them for my apartment. really. we didn’t get a picture in front of the palace because we were pressed for time, but expect one later or google it if you can’t possibly wait. i love, love, love the way kensington is organized. there are three different segments to tour, all with a different theme and style.

i think kassie girl’s favorite segment was the king’s apartments. it involves a “choose your own adventure” where you have to pick different reactions to scenarios in a booklet as you move from room to room. at the end you find out where you would’ve been in court had you made those decisions. kassie ended up as the king’s favorite, and i was the prime minister! i even got announced to a room full of people as “prime minister baker.” too funny, and slightly embarassing. there’s also a very whimsical and artistic section that tells the story of william and mary. the third section is all about victoria and albert which just melts my heart. (if you haven’t seen the young victoria go watch it this minute and you’ll understand why). overall, kensington palace is so lighthearted and fun. if i didn’t have to pay to get in i think i’d spend every day in there. i’ll be able to do that after i marry prince harry though, so it’s really all right.

|| windsor ||

what’s a visit to windsor castle without running into the queen or kate? if only except if i actually met them i wouldn’t be composedly taking a picture, i promise you that. windsor is the queen’s weekend home so we were definitely looking for her around every corner, but no luck. out of all the castles and palaces we’ve gone to, windsor is the one that looks most like a typical “castle.” it’s the one you draw a picture of when you’re little with towers and a drawbridge and all. it was unbelievably massive too. i wouldn’t mind moving in.

me and becca in front of the sovereign’s entrance to the castle. ^^^ still no sign of the queen though. one of the coolest parts was a giant dollhouse made for one of the queens that had working plumbing, silver plates, and miniature famous works of art by the actual artists. out of control cool. made me want to play with dolls again, or be a doll and live there. the town around the castle is adorable too. we spent the whole day in and around the castle and even then we didn’t get to see everything.

after an endless amount of castles and palaces they never cease to amaze me. the amount of detail that has been put into creating these places is unreal. i could join the royal family just to live in them, and/or be friends with kate. both good options.